Advice needed

[the_shadow]

Well its finally happened.... I've woken up to my lax spending and realised how bad my debts have become...

 

I currently owe 35k on 6 Credit cards and am struggling, I've just received notice from amex that my minimum payments are being doubled from 2.5% to 5% which I cant afford.

 

I tried to talk to amex but the call centre adviser just said its being targeted at people who have balance transferred at a low rate in the past and have recycled the debt by adding more to the card. I've been advised to phone back once the change has happened and I'm in financial difficulty......[i'm already there ]

 

I'm thinking of continuing paying minimum payments on all other cards and putting up my payments to amex to approx 3% and cancelling the DD (advising them in writing of what I'm doing)

 

Once my overdraft is reduced I'll stop being hit for charges and can put that £100-150 towards paying more off the cards

 

Any thoughts or advice?

[Ragtaggeorge]

Send out CCAct agreement requests to all of them as per the templates and start reading the relevant threads. Or not as the case may be.

[the_shadow]

Send out CCAct agreement requests to all of them as per the templates and start reading the relevant threads. Or not as the case may be.

 

Thanks for the reply..

 

a couple of these cards are possibly post 2007 tbh I'm not entirely sure when exactly I took the cards out . I've kept between 3-4 years statements for the others so know they fall under the horizon of the new amendments to the credit act.

 

The cards are held with Amex, Citicard, Capital One, Virgin, "MSDW/Goldfish/Barclaycard", HSBC.

 

I also think I applied for most of them online, does this hinder things at all?

 

Is it worth me attempting to get a copy of my CCA agreements without putting the account into dispute or is this seen as a fishing expedition by the legal authorities if it goes to court (which I really dont want)

 

Any help would be much appreciated, I've read so many threads over the last couple of days but still have nagging questions.. the banks and dca's seem all powerful and have zillions to spend on defences (or perhaps not in the credit crunch climate) I feel there should be a dummies guide to consumer law

[Ragtaggeorge]

The new ammendments only apply from April 2006.

You are entitled to ask to see your agreement its not fishing.

Really the best thing you can do is some more reading: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/162851-consumer-credit-agreements.html?nojs=1#links

Look at the stickys there and some of the threads.

Also use the search feature to look for institution specific sections like, 'MBNA'.

You are likley to be 'lucky' with all of those names you have quoted with agreements before 04/06 so I would go for it.

Send out the CCAs probably nothing much will come back, which is good, post up what they do send in a thread you start for each card.